Can someone explain to my in layman's terms what the vote is for today? What will the outcome determine? I'm so confused by the American political system.

_________________Did you notice the slight feeling of panic at the words "Chicken Basin Street"? Like someone was walking over your grave? Try not to remember. We must never remember. - mumblesIs this about devilberries and nazifruit again? - footface

Can someone explain to my in layman's terms what the vote is for today? What will the outcome determine? I'm so confused by the American political system.

It depends on where the person lives. Some people are voting for senate or congress seats. Some are voting for state governors. Some are voting for mayors, city council, school boards, judges, parish/county officials. Lots of places have state or city propositions to vote for (to raise taxes, to amend the state constitution, to enact bonds, and so on). We call it midterm elections because there's no presidential election. Not as many people end up voting.

You're probably hearing about senate and house of representative races and a few controversial propositions, like California's proposition to legalize marijuana. This election will determine which of our two major parties has a majority over congress, which gives the party the option of stalling things they don't want to pass or passing things that are unpopular with the opposition.

Philadelphia lost my registration and I don't know if I've actually lived in PA long enough to vote here. If I show up at my polling place with something with my name and address on it will they let me vote?

Philadelphia lost my registration and I don't know if I've actually lived in PA long enough to vote here. If I show up at my polling place with something with my name and address on it will they let me vote?

Depends on your local voting laws. At the very least, you should be able to get a provisional ballot.

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:10 pmPosts: 777Location: between a rock and a hard place

In Alabama, we're voting for governor, lieutenant governor (we vote separately for these offices here, so that we could conceivably have a Republican governor and a Democratic lieutenant governor or vice versa), senate, congress, and several statewide offices. I will be holding my nose the entire time, like I do every election.

I will have to vote at my old precinct because I keep forgetting to change my registration to my current location. Most of what we're voting for is the same (everyone's voting for governor and I haven't changed US congressional districts) - the state reps and so forth, not so much.

I always vote absentee, so my ballot got mailed off two weeks ago. Thank christ this day is here, I am so sick of getting 75% election-related junk mail in my mail box every day. I have been pretty lucky in that I think I've only received one AutoDial call this election. I just hope we get to hold onto this good World Series feeling a while longer and don't have it immediately spoiled by bad election results.

It's weird because I've worked on proposition campaigns before and the amount of energy and focus that goes into mailers and AutoDial scripts is just ludicrous because in my experience, at least according to the most vocal people, these things are annoying at best and will cause enough irritation to actually change a vote, at worst. I guess it's just part of a larger election system that is deeply flawed.

For those curious non-Americans, my own ballot was three pages long and included national offices such as senate, state offices such as governor and treasurer, state-wide measures such as the marijuana proposition, county- and district-specific offices and measures, and city-specific offices (mayor) and measures (a shiitake ton of new taxes). There are also government positions to be filled on the advisory boards for the local utilities and public transportation authorities. And we also vote on supreme court judges, which I didn't really give any thought to until Jordanpattern said how messed up it was, and I thought, "hey, you're right."

There are also government positions to be filled on the advisory boards for the local utilities and public transportation authorities.

Maybe I'm a horrible person, but I never pay attention to these and just skip them. The only thing I feel strongly about this time around is X and mildly strong about a handful of the state props.

My problem is that I don't know much about them. If there's a party mentioned (so I can just vote party-line) or if I recognize a name from anywhere besides campaign signs, I'll vote accordingly, but otherwise, I dunno. I'm not terribly involved in local politics, unfortunately. That will probably change once I live somewhere I want to stay a while and where I have a stake in, you know, the local school system.

There are also government positions to be filled on the advisory boards for the local utilities and public transportation authorities.

Maybe I'm a horrible person, but I never pay attention to these and just skip them. The only thing I feel strongly about this time around is X and mildly strong about a handful of the state props.

My problem is that I don't know much about them. If there's a party mentioned (so I can just vote party-line) or if I recognize a name from anywhere besides campaign signs, I'll vote accordingly, but otherwise, I dunno. I'm not terribly involved in local politics, unfortunately. That will probably change once I live somewhere I want to stay a while and where I have a stake in, you know, the local school system.

This is precisely why I vote absentee! I have a good long week or two with my ballot to look up what the hell everything is and who endorses/opposes who or what.